National Bureau of Statistics of China: what it publishes and how to check it
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is China's national statistics office. It publishes quarterly GDP, monthly prices, industrial output, retail sales, investment, the surveyed urban unemployment rate and 70-city house prices, the annual Statistical Communiqué, wages and household income, and runs the census and population sample surveys. Fact-checkers use it for claims about growth, prices, jobs, housing and population decline.
What it publishes
- Quarterly GDP (year-on-year growth) and annual GDP with revisions.
- Monthly CPI and PPI, industrial production, retail sales and fixed-asset investment.
- Surveyed urban unemployment rate, overall and by age group.
- Monthly 70-city new and second-hand house price indices and real estate investment and sales.
- Annual Statistical Communiqué on national economic and social development.
- Average wages, household income and consumption, population, births and deaths.
- The ten-yearly census and the 1% population sample survey.
Key datasets
- Latest releases
All NBS press releases in date order (Chinese).
- Statistical communiqués
Annual national communiqués and census and survey bulletins.
- Statistical Communiqué 2025
Headline figures for 2025 on population, GDP, prices, jobs, income and public finance.
- NBS English site
English press releases for main indicators.
APIs and downloads
- NBS data portalSearchable monthly, quarterly and annual database with downloads; it was unreachable from outside China at times on 13 October 2026.
- Data releases indexIndex of NBS data pages, yearbooks and releases (Chinese).
When it publishes
The NBS publishes an annual release calendar. Monthly activity data, including the unemployment rate and house prices, usually come out around the 15th of the following month; CPI and PPI around the 9th; quarterly GDP in the middle of the month after the quarter; and the Statistical Communiqué at the end of February. Releases are at 9:30 Beijing time.
How to use it to check a claim
- For growth, use the year-on-year rate NBS publishes and say whether it is quarterly or cumulative for the year to date.
- For unemployment, say whether the figure is the national urban rate or an age-group rate, and whether students are excluded.
- For house prices, remember the 70-city index is a set of city indices with no single national average.
- For population, give the reference date: year-end estimates, the 1 November 2025 sample survey and the 2020 census differ.
- Quote figures from the Chinese release when the English summary is shorter or later.
Common mistakes
- Some indicators have been suspended or redefined at times, which breaks series comparisons.
- The Communiqué's preliminary figures are revised in the following year's verification.
- NBS pages sometimes reset connections from outside China; retrying usually works.
Where is China's latest GDP figure?
In the NBS release on preliminary GDP accounting for the latest quarter, listed on its latest releases page, usually in the middle of the month after the quarter ends.
Does China still publish youth unemployment?
The NBS publishes unemployment rates by age group in its monthly releases; the youth series now excludes students, so it is not comparable with figures before the change.
Questions answered using this source
- What is the population of China?
- What is China's GDP and how fast is it growing?
- What is the inflation rate in China?
- What is the unemployment rate in China?
- What is the birth rate in China?
- What is the average salary in China?
- Are house prices falling in China?
- What did China's 2025 population sample survey find?
Links checked 14 October 2026. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.